07-31-25 - *FULL SHOW* Ross Gets a Haircut; Sydney Sweeney

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Tomorrow I'm going to do I've mentioned this. I'm going
to do a hair restoration touch up thing, which, by
the way, Shannon reminds me, can you bring my piece
of paper in here place?

Speaker 2 (00:11):
I forgot to pick it up, Sorry about that anyway,
So I'm going over there. I'm going over to advanced
hair tomorrow.

Speaker 1 (00:17):
So today, in order to prepare for that, I need
to get part of my like the back and sides
of my head the hair cut all the way down,
like with not a razor, but with one of those
I don't know, clipper electric clipper things without.

Speaker 2 (00:33):
A guard on the front.

Speaker 1 (00:34):
And I don't have to thank you, Shannon, I don't
have to do really anything with the top. So it's
sort of like a like a Marine Corps high and
tight haircut kind of sorta. And tonight we're having a
party for Koa, who's one hundredth birthday, And so I
was talking with a couple of the gals who will
work out here at iHeart, whose desks are near my desk,

(00:57):
and this came up and they so well, and then
program director Dave also said, why don't you just do
the haircut on the air, And so in an hour
and a half.

Speaker 2 (01:08):
A couple of these gals.

Speaker 1 (01:08):
Are gonna come in and they're gonna give me a
haircut while I'm sitting here in the studio or standing maybe,
I don't know. I brought in a tarp so there
won't be hair all over the floor. Channon was looking
at me with great nervousness. But I brought in a
tarp so we'll be able to keep the room clean.
And they were thinking.

Speaker 2 (01:25):
That they might.

Speaker 1 (01:28):
Leave in a little pattern of hair on the back
of my head the number one hundred for Koa's one
hundredth birthday party. So we're gonna see if we can
get that done, and somebody will video it and then
we'll post it somewhere and I'll tell you about it.

Speaker 2 (01:41):
So that's what's going on with me today.

Speaker 1 (01:43):
We got a couple of interesting guests, and we've got
a few interesting guests.

Speaker 2 (01:46):
On the show today, including you.

Speaker 1 (01:48):
You might have heard me mention just ten minutes ago
when talking with Marty and Gina that coming up at
about eleven thirty, if all goes according to plan, and
you never know what these folks, but that I'm gonna
have the governor and I'm gonna have Mark Farrandino, who
is executive director of the Colorado State Office of Planning
and Budgeting, who actually knows more than the governor does

(02:09):
about the budget issue. And the budget issue is a
big deal, and Mark probably knows more than anybody else.
And I saw this headline at the Colorado Sun Colorado
lawmakers must cut a billion dollars from the state's current
budget because of the GOP federal tax and spending bill.

Speaker 2 (02:26):
So I actually think that's great.

Speaker 1 (02:27):
News that we have to cut our state budget. And
I'm sure Mark and Jared don't feel so happy about
it as I do. But regardless of who's happy and
who's not, we need to understand how the state is
going to cut spending in order to keep the budget balance.
So that's coming up at eleven thirty three. I don't
normally tease that far ahead, but it's an important conversation

(02:50):
that you are not going to want to miss. I
have other interesting guests in the show before then.

Speaker 2 (02:56):
So if you are on social media at all or.

Speaker 1 (02:59):
Watching much news these days, you may have heard about
this uproar, maybe a tempest in a teapot, but interesting
in its own way, about an advertising campaign from American
Eagle called Good Genes, starring a young woman named Sidney Sweeney,

(03:20):
who maybe I was supposed to have heard of before,
but hadn't you know she's a twenty seven year old
actress or I guess these days I'm calling men, I'm
supposed to call men.

Speaker 2 (03:28):
And women actors.

Speaker 1 (03:29):
But in any case, twenty seven years old, and how
would you describe her super hot? That's basically how you
would describe her as super hot. She's mostly blaunched, got
blue eyes, she has a you know, her body is
a ten out of ten if you are a heterosexual
male or well, I mean, you know, everybody's got different tastes.

Speaker 2 (03:47):
But she's super hot.

Speaker 1 (03:48):
So she does these ads that are somewhat reminiscent of
the Brookshields Calvin Klein gene ads from the nineteen eighties actually,
and part of it is her talking about genetics, right,
and how genes code for hair color and eye color,

(04:09):
and she's wearing these American Eagle jeans, and it says
like Sidney Sweeney has has great genes G E N
E S and then crossed out.

Speaker 2 (04:21):
And then J E A N S.

Speaker 1 (04:24):
And I've got so many examples on my blog today
that you should go check out of these videos. So
first I have the ads themselves, some of the ads themselves,
and those are worth looking at just because she's a
good looking. But then when I have a whole bunch
of tweets up there from people on the left going
absolutely freaking crazy, and it's mostly unattractive women actually who

(04:51):
are going crazy. I'm not afraid to say this is
obviously true when you look at these tweets, it's mostly
unattractive leftist women who don't like men because men don't
don't want to date them because they're both not how
do I want to put this, They are pretty neither
on the outside nor on the inside.

Speaker 2 (05:11):
They just at least that's how they come across.

Speaker 1 (05:14):
Maybe they're maybe they're better in person, but at least
the vibe they're given out would be like I wouldn't
want to date you even.

Speaker 2 (05:22):
If you were better looking.

Speaker 1 (05:23):
Sorry, So anyway, they're posting stuff, these haters are posting
stuff about how oh my gosh, it is a blonde,
blue eyed, white woman posting something about good jeans that
sounds just like the Third Reich. This stuff is all
over the place. It's just it's just and they won't

(05:47):
shut up about it. It's not sea propaganda. They're all saying,
it's not sea propaganda. And then there was this other girl, young, younger,
i'd say, probably in her in her twenties, and I
don't know what her nicity is, but her skin tone
is much darker than mine. I don't think she's African American,
and she looks to me more like some kind of East.

Speaker 2 (06:08):
Asian Filipino something like that. I don't know.

Speaker 1 (06:11):
And she did a thing on Twitter about how seeing
Sydney Sweeney looking very hot in these genes, seeing a
white girl do this makes her relive all.

Speaker 2 (06:21):
The trauma she suffered as a brown girl. Ah, gosh.

Speaker 1 (06:28):
The good The good news is lots and lots of
people are pushing back against the morons.

Speaker 2 (06:33):
Right, lots of people and not just conservatives.

Speaker 1 (06:36):
Are pushing back against these critics, saying, why can't you
just be happy to see a healthy looking young woman
with a great but not a surgically enhanced body as
far as we know, and not.

Speaker 2 (06:52):
Taking herself too seriously.

Speaker 1 (06:54):
And kind of having some fun, you know, dealing with
a Ford Mustang or something or yeah, it's all to me.
The ads are harmless and On the one hand, you
could say American Eagle is laughing all the way to
the bank because they're selling out these genes. And on
the other hand, they probably are wondering a little bit

(07:14):
whether it's having any negative impact on the brand. But
the bottom line is American Eagle stock and the American Eagle,
you know company has been struggling for so long that
I think anything that brings them a lot of attention
is good for them. It's just kind of remarkable that
even in this day of sort of post ultra wokeness
and post what you know.

Speaker 2 (07:35):
Now we're in the age of Trump rather.

Speaker 1 (07:37):
Than the age of Biden or Obama, these people are
still out there who can't watch a hot blonde model Genes,
where they'd be very happy to see an ugly non
blonde model Genes. And I think the country is over it,
but they haven't realized it yet. Producer Shannon reminded me
that separate from in it, I shouldn't say separate from

(07:58):
But in addition to this Sydney swing any controversy, now,
dunkin Donuts has gotten in on the fund with another
actor I never heard of named Gavin Cassalanio, who I
guess is in a TV show called The Summer I
Turned Pretty, and he says in this ad for Duncin Donuts,
which is for something called a refresher, which I guess

(08:22):
is maybe a nice drink or something. He said, look,
I didn't ask to be the King of Summer. It
just kind of happened. And then he says this Tan
I get, you know, like his tan genetics.

Speaker 2 (08:33):
So now Dunkin.

Speaker 1 (08:34):
Donuts is in on the fun talking about genetics.

Speaker 2 (08:38):
So people are pissed off about that too.

Speaker 1 (08:40):
I have been thinking that we have entered into a
time period in which fewer people are just looking for
ways to be offended, and in fact, we probably are.
We've probably, but that doesn't mean there still aren't lots
and lots of people who are just looking for ways
to be offended. Let me mention something very very quickly.
I wrote a substack, and I hope you will go

(09:03):
check it out.

Speaker 2 (09:03):
I wrote a substack this morning.

Speaker 1 (09:05):
It's up at Rosskominsky dot substack dot com about England
and France and now Canada announcing their intention to recognize
a Palestinian state at the UN in September. Now they
have at least most of them put some conditions on that,
like there has to be elections in Gaza, and Hamas
can't be part of the elections, which is not going

(09:28):
to happen. But they are virtue signaling to their left
wing bases and those countries. I talked about it a
little bit at the end of yesterday's show, But so
yesterday we knew about England and France during my show,
and then later yesterday we learned that Canada made a
similar announcement. And I want to give Donald Trump a

(09:48):
big positive shout out.

Speaker 2 (09:49):
For something here.

Speaker 1 (09:50):
This is what Donald Trump said on Truth Social and
I quote, Wow, Canada has just announced that it is
backing diatehood for Palestine. That will make it very hard
for us to make a trade deal with them. So
you know, I'm not a fan of the trade wars,
but as long as you're in one, you better let

(10:11):
them know what we're upset about, and the idea that
these countries there's nothing in it for them other than
perhaps pandering to the Muslim minorities in their countries to
go recognize Palestine quote unquote as a state. And as
I mentioned this yesterday, was not the United States's responsibility

(10:33):
to feed the Japanese after they bombed during the war,
after they bombed Pearl Harbor, right, or if we're watching
Animal House after the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor, right. And
it's also not the responsibility of the Czechs or the
French or the Belgians to feed the Germans during.

Speaker 2 (10:48):
World War Two.

Speaker 1 (10:49):
Why isn't the responsibility of Israel to feed the people
of a country who's elected government attacked them and murdered
them and said that they would keep doing it over
and over and over every single day if they could.
It's not that I said this yesterday. I don't want
civilians to starve to death, but you elected that government

(11:12):
and I would bet a lot of money that if
there were an election in Gaza today where Hamas was
on the ballot, Hamas would win. So you know what,
you made your bed, you lie in it, even if
your bed is lying in a heap of rubble right now.

(11:33):
You know, I'm sorry, not sorry as they say, I'm
just I'm hardcore on this.

Speaker 2 (11:39):
I really am. I really am. And you know.

Speaker 1 (11:43):
Trump's idea about moving the Palestinians out of Gaza, really
it's never going to happen.

Speaker 2 (11:48):
But is the right idea. It's the right idea.

Speaker 1 (11:51):
Why would you have Why would we, as America allow
some you know, renegade band of terrorists who want to
destroy the United States of America to have an enclave
in Tijuana or or southern British Columbia, right, or or
anywhere where you like, walk across the border and kill

(12:15):
a lot of people and and then some other country
wants to recognize you as a nation.

Speaker 2 (12:21):
I don't think so.

Speaker 1 (12:23):
And I think that the nations that say that they
are going to do that, despite the fact that England
is one of them, and even France, they're they're drifting
quickly away from being our friends, right. And I realize
some of that may be a negative reaction against Donald
Trump from from you know, political leaders who just don't

(12:44):
like him, but you know, they need to keep it
together in their in their brains, Trump is what Trump is.
But these people are siding with the Nazis. All right,
we still have a massive amount of stuff.

Speaker 2 (12:54):
To do on today's show.

Speaker 1 (12:56):
Let me get to this thing that I've had for
a couple of days and haven't.

Speaker 2 (12:59):
Had a chance to get too. So.

Speaker 1 (13:02):
You know that I like betting on sports, mostly football.
I love betting on football, and with the advent of
online gaming and gaming apps sports betting apps, there are
a lot of new kinds of bets out there, including
lots and lots of different bets that are incredibly short term.

(13:27):
So traditional kinds of bets are who will win the game,
how many points will the winn or win by? What
will be the total number of points scored in the game.
Those are really very very traditional kinds of bets. And
you know, back in the day when I was doing
quite a lot of illegal sports gambling in Chicago, when

(13:49):
I had a bookie whose name was something like Guido
or Vinnie, and I'm not kidding, right, It's like it
was just so absolutely stereotype, you know.

Speaker 3 (13:59):
It was.

Speaker 1 (14:00):
It was an Italian probably mobbed up bookie, and I
was betting quite a bit through them.

Speaker 2 (14:07):
It was it was fun. It was It was fun
for a while that I got tired of it.

Speaker 1 (14:10):
I probably more or less broke even I was gambling
way too much money on anyone bet and I'm just like, eh, no,
I'm done. This is not productive. But it doesn't mean
I didn't enjoy it. Well, it lasted anyway. Now it's
it's legal in most places, you just you just go
on your phone, you do this stuff.

Speaker 2 (14:29):
Okay, anyway, so here's my point.

Speaker 1 (14:32):
Because of what's going on with technology, now you can
do stuff like bet.

Speaker 2 (14:40):
Will the next drive in.

Speaker 1 (14:42):
A football game result in a touchdown, field goal, punt, safety?
You know, big odds on a safety, but you can
and and now you can even bet on particular plays.

Speaker 3 (14:58):
Okay.

Speaker 1 (14:58):
So now, thinking back in the history of sports corruption,
you think back to the nineteen nineteen Chicago White Sox,
for example, full of great players like shoeless Joe Jackson, who.

Speaker 2 (15:12):
Are not well, who were not allowed to be considered
for the Hall of Well. I don't know when the
Hall of Fame came round.

Speaker 1 (15:17):
They're basically blacklisted forever. They were just recently unblacklisted because
they're all dead. But they threw a game to make
money gambling. But that was a whole game. What's going
on now is a thing, or at least what's possible now,

(15:38):
and there's some suspicion that it's going on now, is
a thing called spot fixing. Okay, so you've heard the
term fixing a game. This is about fixing a moment
in a game. For example, what will the next pitch
be that a pitcher throw, will it be a ball

(16:00):
or a strike? Now, here's the thing to keep in
mind with spot fixing.

Speaker 2 (16:04):
When it comes to.

Speaker 1 (16:05):
A pitch, it's much easier for a pitcher to guarantee
that he throws a ball than that he guarantees to
throw a strike, because a lot of times a pitcher
is trying to throw a strike and misses and throws
a ball. But if you're trying to throw a ball,
and especially if you're pretty aggressive about it, it's not
very likely you're going to throw a strike. At least
it's much less likely. You follow me, Shannon, Does that

(16:26):
make sense? So there's a very very good Cleveland Guardians closer,
right relief pitcher closer named Emmanuel class A Clase. And
this dude, now, and he's not the first, is under

(16:47):
investigation for potentially spot fixing because it and there are
actually websites, computer programs and stuff that keep track of
nu usual betting activity on particular bets.

Speaker 2 (17:03):
And one of.

Speaker 1 (17:03):
These trackers found unusual betting activity on I think it
was the first pitch by class A in a couple
of different innings, and on both of them he threw balls.

Speaker 2 (17:18):
Rather than strikes, but.

Speaker 1 (17:20):
That weren't even close, So now he's been suspended. There's
there's a thing in basketball, a guy named John kay Porter,
who's a forward with the Toronto Raptors. He was actually caught,
according to the Wall Street Journal, sixteen months ago, conspiring
with betters to fix his performance in NBA games. But

(17:42):
it seems like, again, as the Journal puts it, no
caliber of athlete, no matter how rich, famous, or talented,
is immune to the threat of gambling, and class.

Speaker 2 (17:54):
Is being investigated.

Speaker 1 (17:56):
One of his teammates, a starting pitcher named Luis Or Tease,
is already being investigated. Sports books had identified unusual wagering.
Uh oh, so it's probably very similar with the Class
A thing on two of four Teaz's pitches this summer
season being a ball, and he threw both of them
far outside the strike zone, which prompted the probe. And
both of these guys are not playing right now. And

(18:18):
by the way, Class A could potentially be enormous money
in a trade, But now he can't be traded either
because if it is found that he was involved in
betting and that he maniped, he changed what he was
doing and threw a ball intentionally, whether or not he
was on the bet, whether or not he made a

(18:40):
bet on it, he'll be banned for life, not just
from the Cleveland Indians or Cleveland Guardians, but from any team.

Speaker 2 (18:50):
So gosh, this is well, I guess.

Speaker 1 (18:53):
I guess I shouldn't say with such certainty that he
would be banned for life if he didn't personally.

Speaker 2 (18:59):
Make a bet, although I suspect he would be.

Speaker 1 (19:01):
But at the least he'd be banned for years, and
then I guess he could try to make his way
back in. But if he is found to have made
a bet, whether on his team against his team, on
himself against himself, any of that, almost certainly he'll be
banned for life.

Speaker 3 (19:17):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (19:18):
The journal says no other Guardians players are expected to
be implicated. Fears around spot fixing, however, are growing. At
the All Star Game in mid July, the MLB commissioner's
name is Rob Manfred.

Speaker 2 (19:32):
Expressed concerns about.

Speaker 1 (19:33):
What he called micro bets, likely the ones at the
heart of this investigation. There are certain types of bets,
he said, that strike me as unnecessary and particularly vulnerable.
And I think that's right. I'm not saying I think
these are gonna go away. But I do think this
kind of bet is particularly vulnerable, vulnerable to corrupting the game,
because I mean, let's say you're a great picture and

(19:54):
you picture and you strike out lots and lots of people,
and you had a very lower and run average. Just great,
You're not very likely to change the outcome of the
game by intentionally throwing one ball right instead of a strike.
After all, that pitcher pitch might have been a ball anyway,

(20:17):
even if you were.

Speaker 2 (20:18):
Trying to do anything wrong.

Speaker 1 (20:20):
But the fact that you or someone you know could
make a bunch of money if you do throw a
ball is a very very corrupting thing, and we're going
to have to keep an eye on it. And as
a sport's better but also someone who loves sports, you know,
I'm really kind of torn by it in a way.
I think the idea of being able to bet on

(20:42):
whether the next pitch or pass or anything, what it'll be,
I think that's kind of fun. And of course it's
also good for these sports betting platforms because they can
get more people interested in making more bets, which is
how they make their money.

Speaker 2 (20:58):
And they're like, oh, yeah, look how much fun this is.

Speaker 1 (21:00):
You can bet on what will the next drive be
in the Broncos game or what will the next pitch
be in the Rockies game?

Speaker 2 (21:06):
And it is kind of fun and it's.

Speaker 1 (21:08):
Big business, but boy, is that the kind of thing
that could really lead to not just bad behavior, but
if it got bad enough, it could be to the
kind of behavior that would cause people to lose faith
in the game, kind of like what happened when we
started learning how many Major League Baseball players were on steroids,

(21:28):
and it really caused a lot of people to turn
away from the game until they got their act in order.
All right, let's do something completely different. So I've had
on the guests from time to time folks from Fire
or the Fire t H E F I R e
dot org. And Fire is one of the truly great

(21:50):
free speech organizations in the country. And they used to
be focused entirely on education. Now they're broader than that,
but still a lot of focus on education. And for
close to twenty years now, Fire has kept this database
of free.

Speaker 2 (22:10):
Speech and particularly free.

Speaker 1 (22:11):
Speech codes and rules at various colleges, and boy, there
are a lot of colleges that are really, really bad
when it comes to free speech. But not all the
news is bad. And joining us to talk about it
is Ryan Ansloan, who wrote this year's report, Spotlight on
Speech Codes twenty twenty five for Fire Again. The website

(22:34):
is thefire dot Org. Ryan, thanks for being.

Speaker 2 (22:36):
Here, Thanks for having us. This very interesting.

Speaker 1 (22:41):
So let's just jump right in and first give us
an overview of exactly what this survey is attempting to capture.

Speaker 4 (22:50):
Sure yeah, we review annually the policies at nearly five
hundred of the top colleges and universities and the country
to see if they're written policies are consistent with First
Amendment standards. A lot of students set fut on campus
not realizing that they may be giving up their free
speech rights, their ability to protest, to just make their

(23:13):
voices heard. And so we want to make sure that
we hold schools accountable and provide parents and students the
information that they need to make those decisions intelligently.

Speaker 1 (23:24):
What kind of things can colleges do or do colleges
do that get them bad or really bad ratings on
this survey?

Speaker 4 (23:36):
Sure so, we use kind of a traffic light rating
when we're rating schools. A school with no written policies
that seriously implicate free speech can get a green light rating,
but the schools with policies that clearly and substantially restrict
free speech earn our worst red light rating. And a
lot of times those are things like bias response teams,

(23:58):
where schools are soliciting students to kind of, for lack
of a better phrase, snitch on their fellow students for
saying something that they find offensive or triggering or just
indicative of bias. And so that's something that we've seen
pop up for years and we're only just starting to
see schools kind of back away from that. Things like

(24:21):
harassment policies are very similar. The Supreme Court has set
a standard that schools should follow that balances free speech
with people's genuine right to be free of discrimination and harassment.

Speaker 2 (24:34):
But a lot of.

Speaker 4 (24:34):
Schools adopt really bad definitions that could have an off
color joke or a comment made in poor taste get
subject students to a really bad investigation that could upend
their lives.

Speaker 1 (24:49):
Yeah, and I'll add it doesn't the comment doesn't even
have to have been in poor taste. It's not unheard
of with these you know, snowflakes on college camp. And
we were talking earlier in the show in a different
context about how there's so many people out there who
just look for a reason to be offended. Right, this
is an actual thing. You meet somebody interesting on a

(25:12):
college campus, a fellow student who is from somewhere else,
you don't know where, and they've got a very interesting accent,
and you ask where are you from, just based on
their accent. If you say that to the wrong snowflake
or around the wrong snowflake, even if it's not the
person with the accent, they can turn you in saying
that's some kind of microaggression. Now, that doesn't mean the

(25:34):
school is going to necessarily do anything to you, but
they might call you in and ask you questions and
stuff like that. And even that is even just asking
you to come in and asking you a question is wrong.

Speaker 4 (25:48):
Absolutely honestly. One of the things that we've really focused
on in recent years is the chilling effect on campus
that simply soliciting these reporters can have a lot of
schools have biased response teams that maybe they don't all
out punishment themselves, but simply asking students to report on
each other, and then the possibility of having an investigation

(26:10):
having a conversation that I think a student that goes
through that process is gonna think twice before they say
anything for fear of running a foul, that sort of thing,
and so it's absolutely a very real problem.

Speaker 2 (26:23):
Yeah, very interesting.

Speaker 1 (26:25):
So for many years, at least up through the Biden administration,
starting way before that, but going through the Biden administration,
the trend was distinctly worse every year because you had
governments who either weren't paying attention, like I'm sure Trump
in his first term would not have been sympathetic to

(26:48):
these speech codes, but he wasn't really paying attention. Obama
and Biden would have been very sympathetic to these speech
codes and restricting free speech, despite all their happy talk
about supporting free speech.

Speaker 2 (26:59):
But now with Trump in office, does.

Speaker 1 (27:02):
It seem like we are seeing, like you are seeing
the first turn for the better among colleges.

Speaker 4 (27:10):
Yeah, it's interesting. You mentioned we've been doing this report
for a couple of decades now, and it's it's very
difficult to sometimes parse out exactly which direction we're going,
But in general, the worst policies have been improved over time.
I think there are kind of ebbs and flows to

(27:34):
focus on free speech on campus, and there were periods
even during the first Trump administration where I think that
there was a bit of a shift where I think
the conversation was really concerned about the about you know,
what are our students learning and how what kind of
conversations are they engaging in. We have seen especially post

(27:58):
October seventh, probably, you know, when you had the encampments
and just really a global spotlight on what people were
learning and what people are talking about on campus and
whether they are able to talk on campus. There's been
a spotlight shown on a lot of these schools. You know,

(28:19):
you had those congressional hearings where the university presidents really
did not equip themselves well, and in some ways they
were really called out as hypocrites for kind of embracing
free speech when it is convenient, and their track record
did not reflect kindly. And you know, that's one of
the reasons that we have this report is so that

(28:40):
you can kind of hold university speech of the fire
and hold them accountable to live up to the free
speech promises that they make. I think in recent years
universities have really been forced to kind of go back
to the drawing board and demonstrate in writing that they
are taking this seriously. And in many ways, that's just
step one. There's a lot of work to do to

(29:02):
regain public trust that they're actually going to stand up
for free speech in the way that they should.

Speaker 1 (29:07):
Right, And I think a lot of universities that aren't
the biggest, most famous ones are still are nevertheless seeing
Columbia spend a couple hundred million and Harvard maybe five
hundred million if that deal comes through. Brown just announced
fifty million settlement with the federal government, and a lot
of it is, in its own way, is about free
speech as well as protecting civil rights. They're related to

(29:29):
each other, and so I think you, well, you would
know better than I do. So it doesn't matter if
I think you're right, but I do think you're right
that there's been.

Speaker 2 (29:37):
A real turn.

Speaker 1 (29:38):
Ryan Ansloan is Senior Program Council for Policy Reform at
Foundation for Individual Rights and expressionnefire dot org. Their new
report is Spotlight on Speech Codes twenty twenty five. Thanks
for the great work, Thanks for your time today.

Speaker 2 (29:54):
Thank you all right.

Speaker 1 (29:55):
So I also want to mention to listeners that there
are two colleges in Colorad that get the green light
rating from fire for being the best in free speech,
and those two are Colorado Mesa University out near Grand Junction,

(30:16):
and believe it or not, the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Speaker 2 (30:22):
A little bit surprising, but I want to I want
to give them a big shout out.

Speaker 1 (30:26):
Any any college that makes this list, because the green
light list is very small, any college that makes that
list deserves to be given.

Speaker 2 (30:36):
A public shout out.

Speaker 1 (30:37):
Ones that are on the yellow light list so not
the worst, but not what they should be Colorado College,
Colorado School of Mines, Colorado State University, Colorado State University, Pueblo,
and my alma.

Speaker 2 (30:51):
Mater, Columbia University.

Speaker 1 (30:53):
All right, let me do something very different here for
a minute and a half. This is an odd and
interesting but kind of creepy story.

Speaker 2 (31:02):
Channon, you might find this one interesting. Have a listen.

Speaker 1 (31:06):
There is a guy named Byron Black who is on
death row in Tennessee, and he's supposed to be executed
next week. All right, a guy's supposed to be executing Tennessee.
It turns out he has an implanted defibrillator, and a
Nashville judge ordered a hospital to deactivate the defibrillator, because

(31:31):
what they're worried about is that if he's supposed to
die by lethal injection, what they're worried about is that
he'll get the lethal injection, the machine will realize the
guy's heart has stopped, and he'll keep trying to shock
his heart.

Speaker 2 (31:46):
To wake him up. And they think that could be like.

Speaker 1 (31:49):
A real ugly and creepy and messy and maybe even
unconstitutional in the sense of cruel and unusual punishment maybe,
and and so they're trying to sort this out. And
in the meantime, in the meantime, the Nashville General Hospital
has said, we don't have anything to do with this.
We will not participate in this. This is not what

(32:10):
hospitals do, is you know, deactivate defibrillators so you can
kill somebody easier or whatever. So the hospital is saying no.
And so now they're just they're gonna have to sort
this out. Some court is gonna have to rule either
a hospital has to do it, or they can go
ahead and kill him leaving the defibrillator in there. I mean,

(32:30):
you know, play stupid games, win stupid prizes. I'm gonna
get a haircut in studio in half an hour? Did
you know that dragon? Did you know that was coming?
I read your show. You read the blog? Yeah, and
the show Shet, Yeah, Yeah, it's up on It's on
the in.

Speaker 2 (32:43):
The blog too. I follow the show sheet. A listener
sent a really terrible picture.

Speaker 1 (32:49):
It was awful, chills down mine too, physically shivered.

Speaker 2 (32:55):
I know me too, me too, So I put it
on the blog. I appreciate that. And it is a
big moth on a bell pepper.

Speaker 1 (33:02):
And of course one part of that gives dragging the
hebgb's in another part gives me the hebgb's. All right,
let's talk to a ROD producer. A Rod is a
training camp koa at training camp is powered by Chevron,
committed to our local communities and safely delivering affordable, reliable
energy that powers Colorado Forward and a Rod.

Speaker 2 (33:21):
It's the most important question for.

Speaker 1 (33:24):
Me is always are you wearing the sunglasses? I, for
the second day in a row, Ross, have forgotten my
sunglasses in the car because I get here but before
the sun's even up.

Speaker 2 (33:35):
But Ross, you buried the lead. I heard you.

Speaker 5 (33:37):
I heard earlier this morning in your show that you
said that you are either debating or going to or jokingly,
which I hope not the ladder that you're gonna get
one zero zero shaved into your head in this haircut?

Speaker 2 (33:51):
Is that accurate head of today's party.

Speaker 1 (33:53):
Yeah, we're gonna try it, and it's gonna be sort
of the reverse thing though, right, So they're gonna they're
not quite shaved, but use an electric clipper without a
guard on it, so like what you might get if
you were in the Marines, get near, you know, so
are kind of around the sides and back of my head, kind.

Speaker 2 (34:06):
Of leave the top alone.

Speaker 1 (34:08):
And what they're gonna try to do is to leave
hair in place rather than carving it out to say
one hundred you know what I mean.

Speaker 5 (34:17):
I love every bit of that, but that you are
dramatic that you can make it the better, especially because
then you can come out here to Broncos training camp
and you can make the argument that someone gave you
a rookie haircut, and that could be pitting my guest
rookie haircut.

Speaker 2 (34:34):
So I don't want to disappoint you, but I'm going to.

Speaker 1 (34:36):
And that is the one hundred is for Ko's one
hundredth birthday party, which as you know, is tonight, and
I expect to see you here at the end of
the party. They're gonna we're gonna shave off the one
hundred too, And yeah, I'm sorry because it's for this treatment,
this hair restoration thing that I'm doing tomorrow.

Speaker 2 (34:54):
Well, as long as I get pictures and social media
lasts forever.

Speaker 1 (34:56):
Right right, and Joel is Joel is gonna come film
and take pictures of the whole thing. So what you
got for us from training camp today?

Speaker 5 (35:05):
So today is day number six, and everyone's got a
different number by the way, little inside football, everyone says
a different day because the acclamation period last week. But
we got Friday, Saturday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. Today's Thursday. That
would be day number six. So today the Broncos are
not wearing pads. They broke the streak. It was three
days in a row yesterday wearing pads. But they are
wearing shells, which essentially, for those that really don't really know,

(35:28):
the difference. Pads is really the full high contact ability
to have those you're talking about full tackling and maybe
even taken down to the ground. The shells is more
the helmet and the light shoulder. Pads the moderate contact
and you know, I honestly like the break in the
pads because I think this could be a day that
we see the offense kind of get more on par
with the defense because in NFL training camps, not just
here in Denver, but across all thirty two, typically defenses

(35:50):
always have the early lead.

Speaker 2 (35:51):
And that's just how it is.

Speaker 5 (35:53):
With the defense is kind of knowing what's coming and
the offense is still working on install and kind of
still framing out how they're going to look on offense.
So the defense here in Denver has definitely done. So
I got to tell you, man, yesterday was the most
spirit and most physical practice and the trash talk was
absolutely fantastic yesterday. He's typically Malcolm Roach, and I'm gonna
play this for you here. I was because I don't

(36:14):
know if you heard the top of the our news.
I asked Marvin Mims in the post training camp press
conference yesterday about all the trash talk.

Speaker 2 (36:21):
I didn't mention Malcolm Roach by name, but he did. Yeah,
I mean it's just Malcolm Roach.

Speaker 6 (36:26):
I mean, sitting next to him in the locker room,
this guy didn't shut up these talking craft to receivers.
It's like, dude, like your fat guy like, go worry
about that, leave me alone. But uh no, we're always
going back and forth. But with him, it's just a
whole nother deal.

Speaker 5 (36:39):
It was lovingly so it wasn't fat shaming, but nonetheless
it's a microcosm of how really great that trash talk was.

Speaker 2 (36:45):
Yesterday. It was all defense. JK.

Speaker 5 (36:46):
Dobbins, by the way, we've talked a lot about in
the battle with R. J. Harvey at running back, he
he kind of bounced but clap clap back a little
bit of the defense. He was all alone, went over
to the defensive sideline and and was.

Speaker 2 (36:56):
Chirping quite a bit. So it didn't turn into any fights.

Speaker 5 (36:59):
It didn't turn in any scuffles or anything of the
sort whatsoever. It was all still focused. But the defense
ross non stop asturbance. So we'll see if that continues
into today.

Speaker 1 (37:07):
Okay, I know I'm supposed to talk about football with you,
but I want to I want to do something else
for a minute, because I thought of you yesterday as
a guy who loves superhero movies.

Speaker 2 (37:18):
Yes, and I don't know.

Speaker 1 (37:19):
I don't know who's Marvel and who's DC, and who's
what you know, all.

Speaker 2 (37:22):
This stuff I have no idea.

Speaker 1 (37:25):
Where does where does Spider Man fit into this stuff?
And do you care at all about Spider Man?

Speaker 5 (37:30):
Spider Man very much fits into everything Ross. Spider Man
is Marvel, He's in the MCU. Okay, MCU, Marvel Cinematic Universe. Okay,
the new Spider Man movies coming out mid next year
called Brand New Day. It continues with Tom Holland, who
he didn't know was coming back as Spider Man.

Speaker 2 (37:47):
So yes, does that answer your question? Yes? And I
care about Spider Man.

Speaker 5 (37:51):
Spider Man's fantastic, especially because I really like all the
Spider Man movies, and I think Tom Holland's doing an
excellent job in the current portrayal of the character.

Speaker 1 (37:59):
Okay, so I thought of you in the Spider Man
context when I read this next story, which on its
surface is not at all about Spider Man. But I
think you will understand ready.

Speaker 3 (38:10):
Work.

Speaker 2 (38:10):
This is from the Associated Press.

Speaker 1 (38:11):
Workers at a site in north in South Carolina that
once made key parts for nuclear bombs in the US
have found a radioactive wasp nest.

Speaker 2 (38:21):
Oh, please tell me someone got bit by one. No,
not not so far yet. No, not yet.

Speaker 1 (38:29):
But they also killed the wasps and removed the and
removed the nest.

Speaker 2 (38:34):
And you're telling me where was this.

Speaker 1 (38:35):
This was in South Carolina at the Savannah River site
in the and the nest had radiation levels ten times
what is allowed by federal regulation. And we don't we
don't really know, we don't, we don't know much more
than that.

Speaker 2 (38:51):
But I was just thinking that was kind of awesome, right.

Speaker 5 (38:54):
In all reality, that was our first potential at real
life Spider Man, I know, but it would have been
wasp Man man no one likes, No one likes wasp.
I'm currently processed killing a bunch of Wasp in my
backyard right now.

Speaker 2 (39:07):
Now. I get WASPS, I get it.

Speaker 5 (39:09):
But you potentially, I mean probably, you know, probably all
the radiation probably wouldn't wind up killing you, but there's
like a one percent chance. Yeah, they could turn you
into a superhero. Would be the first ever WASPS man,
with comics and movies and everything to come of it. Afterwards.
You'd be a celebrity and a superhero. Listen, how awesome
this is. Listen how awesome this is.

Speaker 1 (39:26):
The site was opened in the early nineteen fifties to
manufacture the plutonium pits needed to make the core of
nuclear bombs during the start of the Cold War with
the Soviet Union. This now the site makes fuel for
new for different nuclear plants. The site is generated more
than one hundred and sixty five million gallons of liquid
nuclear waste, which has through evaporation, been reduced to about

(39:50):
thirty four million gallons according to the Savannah River Mission completion. Gosh,
wouldn't that be awesome if somebody got stung by a
radioactive freaking was?

Speaker 5 (40:00):
Yeah, But the way you described and how good you
are with your words, you kind of made it sound
like it's a villain origin story. So it's probably better
that we didn't go the route of wasp Man because
I don't feel like you would have been on the
good guy's side. And the way that you just described it, yeah,
doesn't sound like it we're talking about the beginnings of
the next big hero. That sounds like we avoided don't

(40:23):
need Yeah, but we need heroes. And I don't hear
about any radioactive you know, spiders or anyone you know,
any hero origin stories being developed slowly but surely, so
you just have villains, we'd be in danger ross.

Speaker 3 (40:37):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (40:38):
Well, I just wanted to share that with you because
you you really were the first person I thought of
when I read the story.

Speaker 5 (40:43):
Well, I appreciate that, and to transition real briefly, I
know you have two seconds to transition briefly. Out here,
the Broncos have their superhero, by the way, and his
name is quarterback Bo Nix, and we are all hoping
that what the national media is saying ross comes to
fruition because rost you know how many times I have
heard the phrase super Bowl already really ungodly amounts from

(41:09):
national talking heads that are talking to people here in
the building. They are aiming high and they need be
Bo Nicks to be wasp manned last time.

Speaker 1 (41:17):
Last time I checked, the over under on Broncos regular season.

Speaker 2 (41:20):
Wins was nine and a half. What do you think
of that line?

Speaker 5 (41:22):
I love the over. I would hammer that over. I
did another because everyone's been asking my prediction. I've been
doing TikTok lives out here at KAA, Colorado. I have
been asked the question. I did another schedule breakdown yesterday.
I think the first time I did it, I had
eleven wins. As of right now, conservatively I have him
at twelve, and that is being conservative. I do think
that talking super Bowl's a bit premature. I think the

(41:46):
only chance to even have to make it a conversation
is if they win the division. Because if you're going
on the road in Week one of the Wildcard to Baltimore,
to Buffalo, to Casey or to Sincy, then the Broncos
could be twice as good this year ross and have
the same result last year and losing the Wildcard at
one of those cities, because that is super daunting. So
if you host a playoff game and you win that

(42:07):
playoff game in the Wildcard, anything's possible in the NFL
any given Sunday.

Speaker 2 (42:11):
Yes, that's a Rod from training camp.

Speaker 1 (42:13):
Thanks again to Chevron for sponsoring O Rkawa training camp coverage.
Thanks ay, Rod, I'm out tomorrow, but you'll probably talk
to whoever's in for me. Maybe wasp Man will fill
in for you exactly. We'll be right back. The spider
would catch the radioactive wasps in its web and then
eat multiple wasps, and then the Spider becomes radioactive spider Man.

Speaker 2 (42:34):
Very good.

Speaker 1 (42:35):
So many, so many different, so many different possibilities with
the radioactive wasp nest I really did think of a
Rod when I heard that story. I did just put
down a large blue tarp underneath my chair because in
the next segment of the show, in about fifteen minutes
or so, if all goes according to plan, a couple

(42:56):
of my colleagues will come in and give me a haircut.
And I'm a little nervous about this. Christine says, she
knows what she's doing. She's not a professional haircutter, but
maybe I should just assume that all women know how
to do this, which would be a very sexist thing
to assume, And so I will assume it. And Joel
is going to come in and video or photograph me

(43:18):
getting a ridiculous haircut before my hair restoration treatment tomorrow.

Speaker 2 (43:23):
So let me do another story right now.

Speaker 1 (43:25):
It's kind of interesting, local ish story about man in
two springs. So a lot of times you find governments
at various levels. This is not so much a typical
federal government problem as it is a state and local
government problem, where they create budgets and spending programs based

(43:48):
on temporary cash flows. And it's not that you would
necessarily know for sure that the cash flow would be temporary,
but it's the kind of thing that if you had
a brain, you would say, you know, what this might
not last forever. So I'm talking about Manitou Springs right now.
And Manitou Springs, as you know or might know, is

(44:10):
very near Colorado Springs. Manitou Springs is a mid sized town,
or maybe on the small size, small side of mid
sized town that for a while was the primary place
in that part of Colorado where you could buy marijuana
because Colorado Springs is a fairly conservative place and they

(44:32):
resisted marijuana legalization for a long time.

Speaker 2 (44:35):
We've actually spent some.

Speaker 1 (44:36):
Time on the show talking about some of the controversies
around marijuana legalization in the Springs, where basically some members
of the city council tried to cheat and the voters
voted one way, and then the city council tried to
overturn the will of the voters and tried to block
marijuana legalization that the voters supported. And I mentioned whoever
whoever those city council members are probably should be voted

(44:58):
off for for doing that, but that's another story. In
any case, Colorado Springs now has recreational marijuana, and so
Manitoo Springs. And I'm going to Gazette dot com here
with the Colorado Springs Gazette, being the major newspaper for
Colorado Springs. They note that Manitoo Springs is facing a

(45:20):
thirty three zero percent reduction in its general fund.

Speaker 2 (45:27):
That's a big number.

Speaker 1 (45:28):
I mean later in the show, we expect to have
Governor Polis and his budget director on the show to
talk about and this will be at about.

Speaker 2 (45:37):
Eleven thirty three.

Speaker 1 (45:39):
They're going to join us to talk about the fact
that the state may need to cut somewhere around two
and a half percent of its budget and that's not
going to be easy, although it kind of should be.
Imagine a city having to cut thirty percent. Councilman John
Shadow I hope I'm pronouncing his name right. Shada said

(45:59):
in a town meeting on Tuesday night that this financial
squeeze on Manitoo Springs is severe enough that they could
be broke by twenty twenty seven. The mayor said, we
always feared what would happen if we lost the money.
Manitoo Springs council members presented started a presentation on Tuesday

(46:20):
with what appeared to be the worst case solutions for
their four point three million dollars shortfall, and these include
abolishing the city's ambulance service, closing the fitness center, or
doubling the sales tax, or you know, some.

Speaker 2 (46:38):
Combination of those.

Speaker 1 (46:39):
There are also possibilities shifting what they call street maintenance
into the Parking Enterprise Fund.

Speaker 2 (46:45):
I'm not exactly sure how that helps, but also talking
about increasing its.

Speaker 1 (46:50):
Excise tax, which sometimes they call an amusement tax, from
five percent where it's been since the nineteen seventies, to
nine percent, and that would hit all kinds of things
that tourists do, like ticket sales, door charges, and other
quote unquote experience spending, which could possibly increase the ticket

(47:10):
price of the broad more Manitou Springs and Pike's Peak
cog Railway, the famous COG Railway, that could increase the
ticket price there from sixty seven dollars up to seventy
three dollars.

Speaker 2 (47:26):
And if approved, that.

Speaker 1 (47:28):
Tax increase would bring in about two point four million,
But they're talking about a four point three million dollars
shortfall in any case they're going to have to figure out.

Speaker 2 (47:37):
But this falls into that category for me.

Speaker 1 (47:40):
Of the they based their budget on cash flows that
were never likely to be permanent. It was never likely
to be the case that Colorado Springs would never approve
recreational marijuana. I mean, they waited a long time, but
they were always likely to do it at some point.
And now a manitu Springs, due to not keeping that

(48:02):
in mind, is in a position where a councilman says,
we could be broke by twenty twenty seven. We'll be
right back with Well, now, you know, Wile Ross gets
a haircut, got intrepid Chad Bauer in the studio, and
I've got my lovely and talented colleagues Christine and Kat
who are gonna give me a haircut, and they're trying
to figure out and Joel is videoing all this for

(48:24):
posterity and social media, and we're gonna just try to
sort out everything because there's a iHeart hundred hundred year
birthday party tonight, and so they're brainstorming how to cut
one hundred into my hair somehow, and I put a
tart down. Actually, what I should do just to not
get hair all over somebody's chair is maybe I should

(48:45):
just like kneel down or something.

Speaker 2 (48:48):
And I've got Mary and Mary and Reese.

Speaker 1 (48:51):
From the Galapigos trip who all just showed up as well.

Speaker 2 (48:55):
So there's never been a day like this for you guys.

Speaker 1 (48:58):
And you can grab chairs to stand and so so welcome.
It's great to see you. And and and I asked
Chad sort of coincidentally and sort of not to be
here as well, so Chad can handle some of the
talking for me while we're doing the haircutting thing. So
all right, you know what that means. No fingers in

(49:20):
the air at the beginning, only at the end.

Speaker 2 (49:21):
Of well, now you know.

Speaker 1 (49:23):
And did you alert Dragon with any music to go
with today's name or not?

Speaker 2 (49:28):
He played it, but I don't think you were listening.

Speaker 1 (49:30):
Oh I missed it. Can you play it again so
I can hear it?

Speaker 2 (49:34):
Is it too late? I already closed it. It was
a little kids.

Speaker 1 (49:37):
And the thing is that normally I would wear headphones,
but I can't wear headphones when I'm when I'm getting
a haircut.

Speaker 2 (49:42):
So Chad, what's the concept today?

Speaker 7 (49:44):
Well, I know every year you look forward to July
thirty first, one of your favorite days in the year.

Speaker 2 (49:48):
Can just start doing whatever?

Speaker 7 (49:49):
Just go ahead because it is National Avocado Day.

Speaker 2 (49:52):
Oh, yes, are you a fan? I am a fan?

Speaker 1 (49:55):
And I and I heard that I heard that Chipotle
has free guawk today.

Speaker 7 (50:00):
Yeah, all kinds of celebrations are going on. But my
question for you is what exactly how is an avocado classified?
Is it a vegetable? Is it a fruit? Is it
a legome? Is it a meat?

Speaker 3 (50:13):
No?

Speaker 2 (50:13):
What exactly is it? I'll call it a crustacean. Crustacean crustacean.
How am I doing that? Is completely wrong? Huh.

Speaker 7 (50:23):
It's actually a lot of people think it's a vegetable,
but it is actually a fruit. And not only is
it a fruit, it is a single seated berry, which I'm.

Speaker 2 (50:33):
All familiar with. God, they're cutting my hair now, which is.

Speaker 7 (50:36):
In the same family as sassafras, the bay laurel, and
the cinnamon tree.

Speaker 2 (50:41):
Wow. Yeah, I bet you didn't know that. No, I
did not. You did not know the origin of the
word avocado.

Speaker 1 (50:48):
This is crazy to be distracted by me getting a haircut.

Speaker 3 (50:53):
Now.

Speaker 7 (50:53):
The avocado goes back, you know, thousands of years as
first uh you know, was first used like five thousand BC.
And the word avocado originates from the Aztec word huacaddle,
which means testicle. Really it does due to the fruits shape,
and it was also considered to have aphrodisiac properties back

(51:16):
in the day back in those ancient times.

Speaker 2 (51:19):
But you didn't know that. No, I did not know that.

Speaker 1 (51:22):
Now here's here's another fan goat avocado the same way again.

Speaker 7 (51:27):
Hey, here's another fascinating avocado fat for you, Rocky that
unlike most fruits, avocados do not ripen until you pick
them from the tree, and they can stay on that
tree for as long as eighteen months and remain unripe.
And then once they're harvested and removed from the branch,
that's when they start to ripen, which is why at
the store a lot of times avocados are really hard,

(51:49):
and then it takes a few days for them to
soften up and become ready to eat.

Speaker 1 (51:53):
I always try to find one that's a little bit
mushy so I don't have to wait a long time
to eat it.

Speaker 2 (51:57):
You're very impatient, Yes, yeah, very impatient.

Speaker 1 (52:00):
But my wife, how's it going? How's my haircut going?

Speaker 2 (52:03):
People? You know, you're looking pretty swave so far. Oh Jesus,
this is really yeah, there's no going about it.

Speaker 1 (52:08):
Yes, I just can't imagine what's going on right now.
And also our listeners just joining, by the way, I've
got Mary and Mary and Reese from the Galapagos Island
trip in studio. I've got intrepid Chad Bauer in studio
talking about talking about avocados. I've got Christine and Kat
giving me a haircut. Although it seems that Christine is

(52:30):
doing most of the work, Joel is doing video, and
Teresa is just laughing at me, although doing it in
a very polite kind of way.

Speaker 2 (52:38):
Continue if you will.

Speaker 7 (52:40):
Nutritionally, the avocado actually has more potassium than a banana, okay,
which most people probably don't know. And there are a
couple of celebrities that own avocado farms in California.

Speaker 2 (52:52):
Do tell.

Speaker 7 (52:53):
One of them is Tom Selleck all right, Magnum p
I and also Oscar winner Jamie Fox, who has a
recording studio on his property on his avocado ranch. All right, Okay, Now,
California is the place in the United States where the
most avocados are grown, but it's not even close where

(53:14):
the vast majority globally are growing.

Speaker 2 (53:16):
Do you know where that is? Mexico? Exactly that they
have they.

Speaker 1 (53:21):
Get a whole advertising campaign making sure we all know
exacto Mexico.

Speaker 2 (53:25):
It's not even close.

Speaker 7 (53:27):
And avocado is also the official right official through the
state of California.

Speaker 2 (53:32):
From my angle, it actually still looks.

Speaker 1 (53:34):
Okay, yeah, but yours is the only angle where it
probably still looks at it.

Speaker 2 (53:37):
It does.

Speaker 7 (53:38):
And here in the United States, the avocado is generally guacamole,
avocado toast, maybe a slice on a burger or something,
but it's it's consumed differently in other parts of the world,
like in Central America Mexico, they're used with rice in soups,
in salads, as sides on chicken and meat, and Chile

(54:00):
they make a pure sauce that they serve with chicken, hamburgers,
and hot dogs, and also have avocados in savory dishes.

Speaker 2 (54:10):
I don't like that. They're laughing behind me.

Speaker 7 (54:12):
Yeah, yeah, it's kind of kind of troubling.

Speaker 2 (54:16):
Yeah, let's find way about it.

Speaker 3 (54:18):
Yeah.

Speaker 7 (54:18):
Now, avocados can also be in sweet dishes and savory dishes,
all right, And in certain parts of the world generally
it's one or the other, Like in Portuguese speaking countries
they use the sweet version. They mash them with sugar
and lime, eat them as a dessert or a snack,
while in many other countries the opposite is true, where
it's the savory preparation and not the sweet kind of

(54:40):
dessert preparation. And they even make drinks out of them
in some countries using avocado.

Speaker 1 (54:45):
I'm trying to think if I've ever had a sweet
avocado dish, maybe some you know, wacky dessert when you know,
at a restaurant in South America or something, but I
really only think of them as savory, right.

Speaker 7 (54:58):
Yeah, and that's the majority. This sweet is only in
a fee in a few countries.

Speaker 2 (55:02):
Okay.

Speaker 7 (55:03):
And then there's some avocado myths that we want to
dispel here.

Speaker 2 (55:06):
Okay, let's do that.

Speaker 7 (55:07):
The myth is that pits will keep the guacamole green.

Speaker 2 (55:12):
I've heard that that sadly isn't true.

Speaker 7 (55:14):
Over time, guacamole exposed to air will oxidize turned brown.
The same goes for cut avocados. A squeeze of lime
will help for a little bit, but for a longer wait.
Pour a small amount of water or milk on top
of your guak enough to cover the surface, keep it
in the refrigerator.

Speaker 2 (55:31):
That will help.

Speaker 7 (55:32):
Now that is actually from avocados from Mexico dot Com.

Speaker 2 (55:36):
Of course it is so they I would assume that
they know the truth of us, so that's that's the thing.
A yes, wow, that's all I got. Well, that's that's plenty.

Speaker 1 (55:46):
And I have to say there were a lot of
things there that I didn't know, but the one that
will probably stick with me forever is that it comes
from the Aztec word for testicle, and I will probably
never eat an avocado the same way. Again, Chad, I
did not know that.

Speaker 2 (56:00):
Well, Ross, now you know.

Speaker 1 (56:04):
Feaders in the air even while getting a haircut.

Speaker 2 (56:07):
Thank you in trepid Chad Bauer.

Speaker 1 (56:09):
Is it National Avocado Day or something like that?

Speaker 2 (56:11):
I have the list. That's why National Avocado.

Speaker 7 (56:14):
And there's also a National Guacamole Day in September, so
you get Oh, they're double tip, Bigness, Yes, they're double dipping.

Speaker 2 (56:20):
Don't double dip the chip.

Speaker 1 (56:21):
It's like it's like Mother's Day and in Valentine's Day.
We all know that Valentine's Day is just another excuse
to buy stuff for the women and nobody cares about us, right,
we all know that that's right. Okay, Hello, hello Reese. Hey,
can you put Reese's mic on?

Speaker 2 (56:38):
Yeah, it's on now there we go. Good to see you.
I haven't seen you since March.

Speaker 1 (56:42):
Yeah, it looks like maybe a Galapago's T shirt you're wearing.

Speaker 2 (56:46):
In fact, it is have to.

Speaker 8 (56:48):
Yeah, easily one of the most fascinating places as I've been.

Speaker 2 (56:52):
Yeah, and you've been a lot of places, You've done
a lot of things. You're an interesting cat.

Speaker 8 (56:55):
You and I have a little bit in common. My
dad was in the military, so I did a lot
of trying. Is a child, no choice? Yeah, And lived
in Taiwan the last one when it was still the
Third World country, so pre industrialization, and we lived on
near or on air basis, and I thought everybody.

Speaker 2 (57:15):
Lived that way. And it about four or five years
for the ginger shock to wear off. I know that feeling.

Speaker 8 (57:21):
But travel a lot in the Pacific, certainly in the
South PACIFICA and the Galapagos is just an incredible place.

Speaker 1 (57:27):
Yeah, that was That was a wonderful, a wonderful trip.
And it's so good to see all of you. I'm
glad you could make it today. Yeah, because you were
talking about you were talking about maybe coming tomorrow, and
I said, I won't be here.

Speaker 2 (57:38):
And now you get to witness the.

Speaker 1 (57:40):
Most ridiculous thing I've probably done on the air in
quite some time.

Speaker 2 (57:43):
And and for those just joining. I'm getting a.

Speaker 1 (57:46):
Haircut right now because I'm doing this hair restoration thing
tomorrow and they need they need the so called donor sites.
Oh my god, they're laughing. Uh, they're they're laughing behind me, Joel, What's.

Speaker 2 (57:58):
What do I need to know? What do I need
to know? Joel? What they're doing? They're crazy in the
back of your hair leaving.

Speaker 1 (58:07):
Hair Andy can get get away with this kind of haircut?
I don't think I can. But oh my gosh, you're
going even higher now, unbelieva.

Speaker 2 (58:18):
So look, I'm getting this. I'm getting this haircut.

Speaker 1 (58:20):
And and Dave, the program director, said just do it
on the air. Okay, all right, a Rod's not here
to do all the live video. But anyway, Oh and
there's Gina like everybody, all right, let me do something
completely different. Let me pretend I'm actually doing a radio
show and I'll talk about something while these people are

(58:41):
making me look ridiculous. Okay, So this has probably happened
to most of you. Raise raise your hand. If this
has happened to you, you bought something at Amazon or
somewhere else. But for me, it's really been an Amazon thing.
And for one reason, or another you want to return it.
It doesn't work, it doesn't work the way you thought
it was supposed to, it doesn't look right.

Speaker 2 (59:03):
And usually this is with less expensive things.

Speaker 1 (59:06):
But you you go on to the Amazon, you know
orders thing and you put in that you want to
return it, and then they tell you, yeah, we're gonna
give you a refund, but you don't actually need to
bring it back.

Speaker 2 (59:17):
So show show of hands, how many of you have
had that happen? Okay? All three, dragon four?

Speaker 1 (59:24):
All right, And I'm not asking the haircut people because
I don't want to distract them. So and this happened
to me, and I actually think this is kind of
a very smart thing by these companies. And the Wall
Street Journal just did a whole thing about it called
why Returnalless Returns can pay off for companies, and the
subhead is retailers are increasingly allowing customers to keep unwanted

(59:46):
items and still get a refund. It isn't just a
question of costs. And that last part is kind of
interesting to me. So with some stuff, like especially stuff
that's broken, and obviously they have to take word for it,
but just assume that for a minute. With stuff that's broken.
There's no reason why I shouldn't say no reason. There

(01:00:07):
could potentially be one reason where Amazon would want this
thing back. The one because they're not going to sell
a broken thing, right, So the one reason they might
want it back is if somehow they've got to deal
with the manufacturer that they could go get another one
from the manufacturer.

Speaker 2 (01:00:21):
And sell that one.

Speaker 1 (01:00:22):
But if you're talking about a seven dollars thing, it
probably costs Amazon a lot more than seven dollars to
go process that just to get a replacement, and it's
just not worth it for them. But there's also the
other side of all of this, and and that is
how do customers feel about it? How do customers feel
about the companies that do this? And there's a new

(01:00:43):
study out again the Wall Street journalists talking about this.

Speaker 2 (01:00:46):
It says, are you laughing? Are we done? We're not
really make a little what are we?

Speaker 1 (01:00:55):
Oh my?

Speaker 2 (01:00:55):
What do we do this? What are we do?

Speaker 9 (01:00:58):
Oh?

Speaker 2 (01:00:58):
My gosh, here comes to another person and to laugh
at me.

Speaker 1 (01:01:02):
Okay, So the study found that there's an additional reason
for companies to let shoppers keep the items. It boosts
customer loyalty to the brand, with customers more likely to
write positive reviews, recommend the brand, and repurchase an item.

Speaker 2 (01:01:17):
Oh my gosh, there's a whole audience.

Speaker 1 (01:01:20):
The study also found that this part's really interesting, that
how a company frames its returnless return policy makes a difference.
For example, highlighting the benefit to the consumer or the
environment rather than the company makes a better impression on shoppers.
What's more, suggesting that the buyer donate the unwanted item
boosts a company's appeal. They can also, you know, theoretically

(01:01:44):
they could do other things like talk about the benefit
to the company or whatever. But they actually did a
study like this, right, So, some participants were told as
part of the study that they ordered a shirt online
and then got the exact same item as a gift
the day later. And so some of them, wait, Molly,
how ridiculous do I look?

Speaker 2 (01:02:05):
From one to ten? Is like seventeen? Probably?

Speaker 1 (01:02:09):
Yeah, okay, good, good, as long as we're gonna do it,
Like my mom says, why just do it when you
can overdo it? So I suppose that's what's happening right now.
I did bring a baseball hat.

Speaker 2 (01:02:20):
Oh I need it?

Speaker 1 (01:02:21):
Okay, god? Oh no, yeah, oh my gosh, wow wow.

Speaker 2 (01:02:32):
Happy yeah, happy, birthday.

Speaker 1 (01:02:34):
Koa, you got that, Joel, I got Happy birthday, Happy
one hundredth birthday. I should stop moving or it's gonna
get really bad. You're right, So okay, so so again
they told these people just as a hypothetical, they bought
a shirt online, then they got the same shirt as
a gift the next day, and then some of them
were told they didn't have to return the shirt and
they could just do what they liked with it and

(01:02:54):
get a refund, and others were told that to get
a refund, they'd have to return the shirt. And then
they asked the participate to write a review with a
brand and scored their responses for positive and negative sentiment,
and those people who were told they could keep the shirt, unsurprising,
I guess, were more positive on average than those who
had to return it. And participants were told that they

(01:03:16):
did another one where they did it with a phone
charger and that it was broken when they received it,
and one group was told to keep the charger, but
they had to submit a video or photo showing the
damage before getting a refund, and another group was told
to keep the charger without proving that it was defective,
And then those participants rated how likely they were to
recommend or say positive things about the brand, and those

(01:03:37):
who were told to keep the charger with no questions
asked were more likely to promote the brand than those
who were required to show proof of damage. And just
as a guy who studied a little bit of marketing,
not a lot, I think this is a really interesting,
maybe not unsurprising finding, but interesting that they actually did
the study, and it explains a lot. I think, why

(01:04:01):
why these companies do this stuff? And there was one
more I'll mention, So they had they broke the people
up into three groups, and they gave each group a
different reason for the brand's policy. So one group they
said the returnless returns make customer lives better. Another group

(01:04:24):
the company pointed to reduced carbon emissions. I guess there
are people who care about that. And the third group
said that it helps.

Speaker 2 (01:04:32):
The company like a hypothetical Amazon or something like it
lowers our costs.

Speaker 1 (01:04:36):
And participants were told that the returnless returns made their
own lives easier were the most likely to recommend the
brand and repurchase whatever it was, and those who were
told the brand was trying to cut carbon emissions were
the next most positive, and those who were told the
company was trying to save money.

Speaker 2 (01:04:52):
Were the least positive.

Speaker 1 (01:04:53):
Again, none of that's really surprising, but I think it's
all really interesting, and I think it's cool that somebody
actually did that study. All right, I got two more
minutes here while they're just doing the last touch ups
on my ridiculous, really ridiculous haircut. Oh gosh, I'm so nervous.

Speaker 2 (01:05:11):
Okay, is it? Is it?

Speaker 1 (01:05:14):
Christine says she's a professional, semi professional at this?

Speaker 2 (01:05:19):
Did bring a comb? I think you do?

Speaker 3 (01:05:20):
You need it?

Speaker 2 (01:05:21):
If I have one? No, don't need it.

Speaker 1 (01:05:24):
Okay, Oh my gosh, Joel.

Speaker 2 (01:05:30):
It actually looks pretty cool man. I like it, all right.

Speaker 1 (01:05:32):
I think you're good.

Speaker 2 (01:05:33):
All right? All right?

Speaker 1 (01:05:37):
Did you know so you guys probably all heard about
Courtland Sutton's new contract, four year, ninety two.

Speaker 2 (01:05:43):
Million dollar contract.

Speaker 1 (01:05:44):
So what I've been telling listeners because I'm up for
my new contract, and you you make me think that
this could really help. I think I am this close
to signing a four year ninety dollars contract with iHeart.

Speaker 2 (01:06:00):
Yeah, yeah, four years. I do have plenty of chess.

Speaker 1 (01:06:06):
No, No, you're not not shaving my chest hair?

Speaker 2 (01:06:10):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (01:06:11):
Right, right, I'm sosquatch. Oh my gosh, well, thank you
all I think. Yeah, I'll see at the party tonight,
and I'll probably keep my heat on for a while until.

Speaker 2 (01:06:28):
Then, and then just like, is it all right? Fantastic?
Oh my god? All right, cat, don't forget to take
your clippers.

Speaker 1 (01:06:37):
Yeah, oh right, I forgot to mention that cat brought
in her her dog's clipper, her dog electric clippers to
use on me, which I thought is perfectly appropriate.

Speaker 2 (01:06:46):
Yeah, me and.

Speaker 1 (01:06:47):
Pickles, Me and Pickles get clipped with the same device.

Speaker 2 (01:06:50):
Oh my gosh. All right, I'm gonna have to clean
up this tarp in a little bit. All right, bye,
thank you? All right, I have a how does this look.

Speaker 1 (01:07:00):
Look? Screwt?

Speaker 2 (01:07:03):
What are you saying? Not bad? Okay, happening that I
look like a bad ass? That's good?

Speaker 1 (01:07:08):
A right, Let me ask you this question real quick,
and then we'll come back and talk about it on
the other side of the break.

Speaker 2 (01:07:12):
I saw this piece at USA today.

Speaker 1 (01:07:14):
Dot com and the headline is do you need a
million dollars to be financially comfortable? And in this piece
they intentionally separate whether you would consider yourself comfortable at
a particular number versus wealthy, and those are those are
very different things, of course, and they can mean different
things to different people. But I want to ask you, uh,

(01:07:39):
the comfortable question. Really you could answer to either one,
but how much money would you need to have in
your in your net worth in order to feel comfortable,
which is, as I said, a different thing from wealthy.

Speaker 2 (01:07:52):
And in the past, I've thought about.

Speaker 1 (01:07:54):
That a little bit, and my number is actually kind
of changed over time. And I'll tell you my thoughts,
but I would I'd love to get yours. Text me
at five six six nine zero and tell me the
answer to that question.

Speaker 2 (01:08:05):
How much money?

Speaker 1 (01:08:06):
How much would your net worth need to be in
order to feel comfortable? Whatever that means to you. We'll
be right back. Story about Manito Springs facing a budget shortfall,
and now on our news partners at KATIVR, I see
Manito Springs faces four point three million dollars shortfall deficit
largely due to marijuana revenue driving up. Well, I told
you first, okay, So I asked you a question just

(01:08:30):
going into that last break as I was getting a haircut.

Speaker 2 (01:08:34):
How much would you need to have it?

Speaker 1 (01:08:36):
How much would your net worth need to be in
order for you to feel comfortable, not wealthy, not wealthy,
but comfortable. Oh wait, before I go further, dragon, did
you say this is your mom's birthday?

Speaker 2 (01:08:52):
Correct? Yesterday? This is my mom's birth Happy birthday. I
won't make the ka party. Oh? So is she also
so called missus Redbeard? No? What is she mother Redbeard?
What is she called? Mama Dragon? Mama Dragon?

Speaker 1 (01:09:06):
Okay, I don't know if Mama Dragon is listening, but
she might be. I guess, happy, happy, happy birthday. Mama Dragons.

Speaker 2 (01:09:13):
Not quite as old as Kwa. But because I'm her
son and I'm the middle child, I's forgotten. It's close,
always forgotten.

Speaker 1 (01:09:20):
Do you have a little bit of a persecution complex going?

Speaker 2 (01:09:23):
Or it's something I just know my position. I'm middle
child and I'm forgotten. Wow.

Speaker 1 (01:09:27):
All right, So I asked you how much money would
you need to feel comfortable? And the range is pretty interesting,
And of course it's all based on your expectations, right,
and your experience and how you grow up and what
you earn during your life and all this stuff. But
let me just give you a sense of what some
folks are how some folks are answering this question. The

(01:09:49):
very first answer is three million dollars. Another person said
fifty thousand dollars, and I don't believe that less unless
the person is like twenty years old or something like that,
where you haven't had a chance to to, you know,
build up any wealth yet.

Speaker 2 (01:10:04):
What that's what that's folding money right there?

Speaker 3 (01:10:06):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (01:10:07):
Right, listener says around two and a half million, which
is almost exactly where I'm at. I'm sixty five years old,
So let me keep going. Then I'll tell you what
the article said. Comfortable ten thousand a month or one
and a half million net worth wealthy eight million?

Speaker 2 (01:10:23):
Ross.

Speaker 1 (01:10:23):
I retired at fifty six with a net worth of
three point two million, and feel very comfortable.

Speaker 3 (01:10:28):
Ross.

Speaker 1 (01:10:28):
I used to think one hundred thousand, now five hundred thousand.

Speaker 2 (01:10:31):
Ross, I'm gonna say ten million. Wow.

Speaker 1 (01:10:34):
Now again I asked comfortable, not rich, And that would
be interesting if you feel like you need to be
ten you need ten million to be comfortable rather than rich.
Although I think I'm probably not that far from that
kind of mindset.

Speaker 2 (01:10:47):
I think I.

Speaker 1 (01:10:48):
Think my number would be probably over five, maybe below ten.
And you know, one way I think of it, also,
it's like how much money would I need in order
feel like I would be reasonably comfortable retiring, And that's
definitely more than five and maybe closer to ten to

(01:11:08):
really feel comfortable retiring, but not rich for me for
and I know this wasn't the question for me. If
I were gonna feel rich, I'd probably want to say
twenty five million something like that. Let's see there's a
story about returns. Maybe i'll get back to that ross.
We're not struggling by any means, but in order for
us to live comfortably, to be able to do what

(01:11:28):
we want with with some planning and not feel like
we would put ourselves at financial risk, I'd say we
would need. And so they did this by income then
rather than by net worth, but one hundred and twenty
to one hundred and fifty thousand per year per person
husband and wife, so two hundred and forty to three
hundred thousand dollars a year as a household, And.

Speaker 2 (01:11:51):
That that's an interesting thing. I think that's right.

Speaker 1 (01:11:54):
These days, especially if you live in the Denver metro area,
it is so every thing is so expensive.

Speaker 2 (01:12:01):
Of course, housing is so expensive. Everything is so expensive.

Speaker 1 (01:12:04):
That you know, again it was really more of a
net worth question than than an income a cash flow question.
But I do think on the cash flow question, I
think that's about right. I think if you've got kids,
I think if you live, you know, right around Denver,
I think it is not easy to do that making
less than a couple hundred thousand dollars a year as

(01:12:27):
a household if you have kids that you still need
to feed and clothe and put through college and stuff
like that. If it's just a couple, just a couple
of adults, then I think the number goes down quite
a bit.

Speaker 2 (01:12:39):
Ross.

Speaker 1 (01:12:39):
Do you know of a reliable and trustworthy source to
learn how to use AI?

Speaker 2 (01:12:43):
I don't know. Ask chat gpt Ross.

Speaker 1 (01:12:45):
That's a difficult question to answer. But in seven years
I hope to retire and to be comfortable, I'd want
to have a paid for house that is worth approximately
let's see, one point approximately one point seventy five million.

Speaker 2 (01:13:02):
Maybe it doesn't say million enough interest off my.

Speaker 1 (01:13:05):
Assets to be able to live comfortably throughout the year
off my interest, And that depends very much on how
you live.

Speaker 2 (01:13:11):
Do you go out to dinner a lot? Do you
take vacations a lot?

Speaker 1 (01:13:14):
Do you want to buy an expensive car or are
you happy, you know, eating eating at home and driving
an inexpensive car not traveling very much. It's a it's
a very big, big difference.

Speaker 2 (01:13:26):
So let me just find this USA tot eight piece.

Speaker 1 (01:13:30):
I was actually a little bit surprised by the answer
from USA today. They asked a whole bunch of people,
Cheryl Schwab, a huge company, asked a whole bunch of people,
how much money do you need to be comfortable? And
their average answer was eight hundred thousand dollars And and

(01:13:52):
I guess the reason that feels low to me is
because I live in the Denver metro area, right, But
if you were living in you know, it doesn't have
to be fully rural. But just you know, an exerb
outside of Oklahoma City, or an exerb outside of of
Salt Lake or Tallahassee or something like that, where housing

(01:14:16):
costs are half of what they are here, then then
you know the number.

Speaker 2 (01:14:19):
Would change a lot.

Speaker 1 (01:14:20):
In any case, I was a little surprised by that number.
The average was eight hundred thousand dollars to feel comfortable.
And the average when they ask people what would you
need to feel wealthy is two point three million dollars
and I will say.

Speaker 2 (01:14:34):
I know this might sound.

Speaker 1 (01:14:35):
A little I don't know, elitist or something, but if
if I were going to think about retiring with a
net worth of two point three million dollars, Again, I'm
not trying to be sarcastic or any I would feel
I would feel very uncomfortable retiring with that amount of money.
Knowing you know, I had kids late, right, so my

(01:14:56):
kids are still teenagers, even though I'm not that far
from an age where somebody might retire.

Speaker 2 (01:15:02):
I like to travel.

Speaker 1 (01:15:04):
We don't live a very extravagant lifestyle, but we do
like to travel. Boy, you know, retiring with that amount
of money, not only would I not feel wealthy, I
wouldn't even feel comfortable. We'll be right back. For those
who didn't hear it, I'll tell you real fast. I
was driving with my friend in New Jersey going to
his house. This is a long time ago. I was
in my thirties and he comes from a rich family. Well,

(01:15:30):
his dad made the money. It's not like many generations
of family money. His dad made a lot of money
in the medical examination glove business. And we were driving
and that song came on and I said to him, Hey, Steve.

Speaker 2 (01:15:43):
What would you do if you had a million dollars?

Speaker 1 (01:15:45):
And his answer was I would cry because I guess
he had a lot more and I didn't.

Speaker 2 (01:15:52):
And I didn't. Ross, I guess radio pay is better
than I thought. So you know what.

Speaker 1 (01:15:57):
A couple a couple of folks said, Ross, y're you're
rich compared to pay is so good.

Speaker 2 (01:16:02):
You have to have coworkers coming from Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:16:06):
And another listener said said, Ross, You're you're rich compared
to most of your listeners. I might be, but I
just want to make something very clear. Whatever money I
have is not because of radio. I don't mean I
make an okay living. But the reason I have some
net worth is that for quite a few years I
was a financial markets trader, and I started my own
financial markets trading firm, and we had eighty employees and

(01:16:29):
I had a few good years, and unlike a lot
of the other guys around me in that industry, I
was not spending my money on hookers and cocaine.

Speaker 2 (01:16:37):
I never bought an expensive car.

Speaker 1 (01:16:40):
The nicest car I bought was a BMW M three,
but I bought it used and it was not very expensive.
And my big my biggest expense was travel. You know,
I bought a I bought a modest condo that was
cheaper than continuing to pay rent in Chicago.

Speaker 2 (01:16:55):
So I'm pretty careful with my money.

Speaker 1 (01:16:57):
And I wouldn't say I invested very well, but kind
a well. So anyway, you know, for those who are saying,
I guess radio pay is better than I thought, uh no,
it doesn't. Ross does ten million include the tree budget?
The tree budget, my wife's tree budget is why I need.

Speaker 2 (01:17:13):
So much money. That's most of it.

Speaker 1 (01:17:16):
Actually, most of my potential expenses are my wife's budget
for trees, shrubs, and perennials.

Speaker 2 (01:17:25):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:17:26):
Oh, let me do a quick little financial thing here,
just for I just saw this.

Speaker 2 (01:17:30):
So there's apparently there's a.

Speaker 1 (01:17:32):
Software company that I haven't heard of, but it looks
like it's a business oriented software company called Figma Fi
gm A and they're going public today and it's a
it's an interesting time to go public and the market, actually,
the Nasdaq has been very very strong and frothy and
and bubbly, and you know what, this is actually such

(01:17:53):
an interesting story and I want to be able to
get into the details of it enough to make it
interesting for you and to make you can learn a
little bit about about what are called IPO's initial public
offerings and some of the things you have to think
about when you're involved in these.

Speaker 2 (01:18:08):
It's a really interesting story.

Speaker 1 (01:18:09):
So I'm going to take a quick break, and then
when we come back, we'll tell you about what's going
on with FIGMA and why some people are probably really
really happy today and a few people a little unhappy.
Not an entirely unexpected headline over at the Colorado Sun yesterday,
Colorado lawmakers must cut a billion dollars from the state's

(01:18:30):
current budget because of GOP federal tax and spending bill.
And so I reached out initially to Mark Farandino, who
was the executive director of the Colorado State Office of
Planning and Budgeting. He used to head the Department of
Revenue as well. And I've known Mark, as I like
to say, I've known Mark a little bit for a

(01:18:51):
long time, going all the way back to when he
was Speaker of the House, which is probably longer ago
than either one of us want to remember.

Speaker 2 (01:18:58):
So not only does Mark join us to.

Speaker 1 (01:19:00):
Talk about this this challenging budget issue, but another guy
you might have heard of, who is sometimes called the Boss,
and who is known.

Speaker 2 (01:19:10):
To others as Governor.

Speaker 1 (01:19:11):
Jared Poulus joins us for the conversation as well, And
I'm first thank you to both of you for showing
up today, especially.

Speaker 2 (01:19:19):
On such short notice.

Speaker 1 (01:19:20):
I'm I'm grateful that you're here to talk about such
an important thing.

Speaker 3 (01:19:25):
Thank you, Ross, pleasure to be on.

Speaker 1 (01:19:27):
And yeah, and we'll see Jared's Jared's connection is if
he so we'll see. And Mark, you need to unmute yourself.
There you go, Oh yes, all right, there you go.

Speaker 2 (01:19:40):
All right, So why don't we start when don't we
start with.

Speaker 1 (01:19:43):
The macro and and maybe we'll start with with Mark
and tell us at the high level what is the
challenge and why is the challenge?

Speaker 9 (01:19:54):
Hey? Ross, if I could do the high level and
then we can go to Marcildown.

Speaker 3 (01:19:58):
This is Jared Pulses that work where.

Speaker 2 (01:19:59):
You Yeah, what how are you guys? Won? Yeah?

Speaker 9 (01:20:03):
Okay, so real quickly, So we are one of very
few states, in fact four states that immediately for the
current year adopt and the corresponding changes, so our tax
code aligns with federal There's a handful more that do
it on a delayed basis.

Speaker 3 (01:20:18):
So first of all, let me just say.

Speaker 9 (01:20:19):
This is a good thing, because in some states you
compile a totally separate state income tax form and federal
income tax form with different deductions, different liabilities, it's twice
as much work.

Speaker 3 (01:20:30):
So as a general matter, it's.

Speaker 9 (01:20:32):
A good thing that we, like ninety nine percent conform
to federal There's always been a few things we don't
conform on, but for most taxpayers, you can generally use
your same documents for both.

Speaker 3 (01:20:42):
But the downside of that, or the upside, whoever you
look at.

Speaker 9 (01:20:44):
It, is when the federal government makes changes, they're automatically
incorporated into the state tax codes. Sometimes they increase revenue,
sometimes they decrease revenue. Now let me give an example.
There's only four states that for the current year, we're
one of them, immediately stops with the tax on tips,
which was in the federal bill. That's a corresponding change

(01:21:05):
we automatically agree to. Grad There's other tax benefits that
people lose immediately, like the federal billy to aur one
terminated personal exemption other than for seniors. That raises the
state three or four hundred million dollars. So there's like
tons of these changes, some ad revenue to state, some
subtract revenue to the state, but net it subtracts about

(01:21:28):
nine hundred million dollars of revenue for the state in the.

Speaker 3 (01:21:31):
Current year that we are in.

Speaker 9 (01:21:34):
And of course, the state has a requirement to balance
the budget.

Speaker 3 (01:21:37):
That's a good thing I wish the federal government did.

Speaker 9 (01:21:40):
Part of the problem is they can do whatever they
want and not bounce the budget.

Speaker 3 (01:21:42):
We bounce the budget.

Speaker 9 (01:21:44):
So because of these tax changes in the current year,
and most of them are on the corporate side. The
individual ones are more or less a wash. Some gain revenue,
some loans revenue, but generally on the corporate side, there's
a number of them that net lead us to have
to cut nine hundred million from the current year. So
that's the only reason that we're here having this discussion.

(01:22:06):
It's because the corresponding changes that are made to state
tax code to hr One. Again, positive side that happen
right away for Colorado is that doesn't happen in other states.
The challenging side is we also have to make adjustments
to the state budget for the year we're in, not
just future budgets. I hope that kind of explains where
we are.

Speaker 1 (01:22:22):
That does that definitely does, and one quick thing before
I get to mark, to jump into some additional detail. Governor,
have you have you made a decision about a special
session or does this information about having to cut a
billion dollars from the fiscal year we're already in make

(01:22:42):
a special session something that is.

Speaker 2 (01:22:44):
Essentially not optional at this point.

Speaker 9 (01:22:48):
Here's why it's likely ross Okay, So if you were
to wait until January February, when the legislature starts to
cut nine hundred million dollars from the current year, is
more dragg coding because you only have at that point
five months left of the year.

Speaker 3 (01:23:03):
We have eleven months left of the year.

Speaker 9 (01:23:04):
And to be clear for our viewers and listeners, the
year for Colorado starts July first, the fiscal year and
goes through June thirty, so we're in the first month
of the year. Now is a better time to do
it if we can.

Speaker 3 (01:23:15):
Figure out how rather than wait.

Speaker 9 (01:23:17):
So it's pretty darn important to figure this out earlier, Russ,
because the longer you wait, the more severe the cuts
are for those fewer remaining months. So that's the long
and the short of end.

Speaker 1 (01:23:28):
Okay, that makes sense, So I will take from that
that a special session is very likely. Let me go
to Mark Farandino again. Marks executive director of the Colorado State.

Speaker 2 (01:23:37):
Office of Planning and Budgeting.

Speaker 1 (01:23:39):
He used to head up the Colorado Department of Revenue
and also used to be Speaker of the State House
of Representatives. So one high level ish thing for you, Mark,
the Joint Budget Committee and the Legislature recently had to
find something like one point two billion dollars in the
state budget. So first question for you is that was
that stuff entirely unrela to this stuff.

Speaker 10 (01:24:04):
So when you look at last year's when they passed
the budget in April May of last year that the
governor signed, we had growth higher than in terms of expenses,
higher than the available revenue. Revenue grew last year, but
for example, caseload for Medicaid, expenses on Medicaid grew at
like six to eight percent, where our revenue growth was

(01:24:27):
under the spending cap was about three three and a
half percent. So that pushes things out because that's growing bigger.
It's the largest part of our budget is growing faster.
It means you have to shrink other places to make
room for that. So when we talked about what they
did last year, a lot of it is prioritizing money.
We had the cash under the you know, with the
spending cap, but we had too many demands and we

(01:24:51):
had to slow those demands to keep our balance, our
budget balance. This is as I said yesterday to the
Executive Committee, this is we don't have cash. This lowered
our revenue below our spending cap, and now we're about
nine hundred million. We lost a total of one point
two billion, but we're about nine hundred million below our
spending cap. So we don't have the cash to meet

(01:25:11):
the obligations that we just passed a few months ago.
And that is what HR one did versus the original
budget issues were higher growth versus where we could grow spending.

Speaker 1 (01:25:24):
Okay, and then also, it would it be correct to
say that in recent weeks, there's been a lot of
talk about the impact of the so called Big Beautiful
Bill on Medicaid and that's impact on the state budget.
But what we are talking about today is also not
that the and the real Medicaid impacts to the state budget.

(01:25:47):
We'll hit a little bit later and will be an
additional challenge, but it's not what we're discussing today.

Speaker 2 (01:25:51):
Is that right.

Speaker 10 (01:25:54):
Or else?

Speaker 2 (01:25:54):
That's exactly correct.

Speaker 10 (01:25:55):
This is an immediate impact shock to the system of
loss of revenue you from the tax cuts. But then
the over the next three to seven years, the medicaid
and snap cuts that shift costs from the federal government
to states are going to put more pressure on our budgets.

(01:26:15):
And as the governor said, we have to balance our budget.

Speaker 2 (01:26:19):
Congress doesn't have to balance our budget.

Speaker 10 (01:26:21):
So those shifts up and by the time it's fully implemented,
we estimate it could shift up to a billion dollars
of cost to the state, and that will put even
more pressure on the state's budget.

Speaker 1 (01:26:34):
Governor, do you want to add anything to what Mark
just said?

Speaker 2 (01:26:38):
And then I have a question.

Speaker 9 (01:26:39):
I just want to present kind of the I mean, again,
we'll all stuff for the state budget. There's a positive
sign for taxpayers. I mean, it's also a negative sign
for some who lose certain deductions earlier. But the fact
that we can form to federal means of course less
paperwork for taxpayers. Well, let me give you an example of
one of the kind of more stimulus oriented corporate tax revisions.
Full expensing, accelerated expensing of domestic research and experimental expenditure,

(01:27:01):
so that one costs the state two to three hundred
million in the current year, doesn't cost much in the
out years because it kind of advances the normal depreciation.
It'll cost maybe fifty million in the future years something
like that. Now, other states won't have that rapid expensing
of domestic research that we have. So every one of
these has a flip side, right, I mean, while the
state is the cut, Colorado taxpayers are experiencing these changes earlier,

(01:27:26):
for better or worse. Right, some Colorados because of HR one,
pay higher taxes, some pay lower taxes. But some of
these things will have a stimulus effect on Colorado. Again
relatively small. These are not, you know, huge things. But
I want to point out there's kind of two sides
of the.

Speaker 1 (01:27:41):
Okay, and Jared, you just muted yourself there, so unmute
yourself because I got another question for you. So I
want to I want to ask you a quasi political
question here because obviously, but you know, budget cutting or
or budget increasing, everything the legislature does there is a
political aspect to it.

Speaker 2 (01:28:00):
Are interest groups and all this stuff.

Speaker 1 (01:28:02):
And the legislature just had to cut about a billion
dollars in order to as as Mark said, kind of
leave room for medicaid, but at some point you won't
be able to just leave room for medicaid because it's
such a big part of the state budget. In a
more macro sense, Governor, how are you thinking about how

(01:28:26):
the state should cut spending in order to meet this challenge,
especially knowing that there's another challenge of at least the
same size coming soon. It's maybe two and a half
ish percent of the state budget. What do you thinking
should be cut will be cut?

Speaker 9 (01:28:42):
Okay, so this is where the numbers and again it's
just numbers.

Speaker 3 (01:28:46):
Ross, But this year, this current year we're in, is
the year with.

Speaker 9 (01:28:51):
The bulk of the revenue impact from the federal changes.
And I gave you one example, the expensive domestic research
that will cost the state two to three hundred million
this year, only fifty million a year ish going forward.
There's other ones like that full expensing for business property
two to three hundred million this year, one hundred and
seventy five.

Speaker 3 (01:29:09):
To two hundred in future years.

Speaker 9 (01:29:11):
So the fact that these changes take effect in the
current year and accelerate tax benefits that companies would have
gotten in future years somewhat nets out over like a decade.
Ross right, like I can't not dollar for dollar, but
effectively in accelerat se. So the translation of that is
longer term, the state is in a stronger fiscal situation.

(01:29:32):
There's not a need for this level of cuts in
year two, year three, year four of HR one.

Speaker 3 (01:29:36):
It's largely the first year. Now there is going.

Speaker 9 (01:29:39):
To be a need for a larger backfill piece for
things like Medicaid and healthcare coross, so in that area
one of the biggest line items of the state budget.
The state has to do extraordinary work and we hope
to work with There's a fifty billion dollar federal Rural
Hospital Transformation Fund. We have to do more to contain costs.
We hope that there's a partner in the White House

(01:29:59):
right because it's hard to do this on our own.
When it comes to prescription drug benefits, when it comes
to hospital pricing transparency, when it comes to negotiating rates.

Speaker 3 (01:30:07):
There's a number of things that are federal.

Speaker 9 (01:30:09):
Medicaid is administered by the state, but we only have
the flexibility that the Medicaid administer grant and administrator grants
US currently doctor oz through waivers. So we hope the
federal government will partner with us to reduce costs in
medicaid is the short answer for longer term budget stability years,
three years, four years, five?

Speaker 1 (01:30:28):
Okay, And let me go to Mark now for just
a sort of a continuation of the same question. So
the governor focused on medicaid, which, as both of you noted,
is the single biggest thing in the state budget right now.
But Mark, would you, okay, let me would you agree
with me as a macro sort of concept that at
some point the state legislature is not going to be

(01:30:50):
able to hold medicaid completely harmless from any budget cutting
just because, like Willie Sutton with the banks, that's where
the money is. Or do you think you'll be able
to cut other things and never have to cut Medicaid.

Speaker 10 (01:31:05):
So in last year's budget, the Joint Budget Committee did
make some reductions in Medicaid that slowed the growth of Medicaid.
We actually proposed more of those that had warrant taken
by the Joint Budget Committee. I think you'll see those
proposed again as we look at how do we slow
the cost of medicaid, and so you know we are

(01:31:28):
it's not about necessary cuts, it's about how do you
slow the growth you control the growth in that area,
and there are ways we can do, whether it's things
like prior authorization of services, things like that. We are,
you know, continuing to work on that. That is one
where we we have to have those conversations. Otherwise if
we don't slow that growth, that will have huge impacts

(01:31:49):
as you're applying to other parts of the state budget
like education.

Speaker 3 (01:31:53):
Right, so let me let me let me add quickly.

Speaker 9 (01:31:55):
So some of the cost containment measures that we had
proposed last year for Medicaid that the legislature didn't do effectively,
we'll have to be back on the table now. So
they're going to have to look at some of the
cost containment measures we proposed and potentially others to be
able to to UH to bounce the budget.

Speaker 1 (01:32:12):
We're talking with Governor Jared Polis and with Mark Farandino,
the executive director of the Colorado State Office of Planning
and Budgeting, and we're discussing the recently reported fact, although
these guys knew it was coming before it was a
newspaper headline that the big beautiful Bill is going to
have a large UH and immediate fiscal impact on the

(01:32:34):
Colorado State budget. And then other large non immediate fiscal impacts.
So either one of you can take can take this question.
Just one more follow up on what we're talking about.
So Mark, you mentioned uh, education, transportation, education anyway, historically
before you guys, before Jared was governor, you know, during
the time, even Mark, when you were in the legislature,

(01:32:57):
it seems like historically when there have been some budget issue,
use what we've seen is cuts to education, whether it's
K through twelve or big increases in tuition at state universities.
And then we've also seen cuts to transportation. And at
some point, you know, transportation can't take any more cuts.
We're known for having bad roads in this state. So

(01:33:18):
I'm just trying to get a better handle on where
are you going to find the money?

Speaker 2 (01:33:26):
Mark, where do you go?

Speaker 10 (01:33:28):
I don't know if we yet, you know, I do
think under Governor Pulis's leadership, we've put more money into
transportation than in recent memory. And I think that you
know where we're talking, we are going to be below
the spending cap, so transportation probably is going to be
okay as we look forward.

Speaker 2 (01:33:48):
I think we have also made.

Speaker 10 (01:33:51):
Got rid of the budget stabilization factor, which was cuts
to schools we don't want to see the governor's committed
to not seeing that come back. I think we as
I said yesterday, we've asked all departments for next year's
budget to do two and a half percent reductions in
their operating expenses.

Speaker 2 (01:34:09):
You know, so at the margins we can.

Speaker 10 (01:34:11):
We'll look at those type of things, but it you know,
we'll have to prioritize funds across different areas, and we'll
continue to do that in partnership with the Joint Budget
Committee and the legislature.

Speaker 3 (01:34:21):
Let me let me, let's saw us.

Speaker 2 (01:34:23):
Yeah, let me hold them.

Speaker 9 (01:34:24):
Tools are very unlikely, and we would oppose it cutting
them in the current year we're in because again, these
are people already hired, classrooms that already allocated, the school
years already started.

Speaker 3 (01:34:35):
Effectively by the time these cuts.

Speaker 9 (01:34:36):
So we would advocate, and I hope the legislature agrees
to effectively hold education and partless for this round of
nine hundred million dollar cuts. Going forward, there's things we
propose that we wish the legislature rate it up. I'll
give you one example that we work with former Senator
Paul and Dean on The state currently funds phantom students
that means we fund.

Speaker 3 (01:34:54):
Students where they were two or three years ago.

Speaker 9 (01:34:55):
We let districts who are declining enrollment average their enrollment
from it was up to five years ago.

Speaker 3 (01:35:01):
I think we decrease it down to three.

Speaker 9 (01:35:03):
We hope to decrease it more, but effectively, we are
funding where students used to be empty.

Speaker 3 (01:35:08):
Chairs rather than actually where students are.

Speaker 9 (01:35:11):
That's one example that if you were actually eliminated outright
funding to average students, it would save the state something
like one hundred million dollars.

Speaker 1 (01:35:18):
Ish Jared, one last question and then we'll call it
good for today, although we'll hopefully have you guys back
as this is working its way through the system. Your
party is in control of everything right now, and your
party historically doesn't love cutting spending, doesn't love cutting medicaid,

(01:35:39):
that sort of thing. So as a as a political question,
as the guy who is the leader of the party
in the state of Colorado, how are you going to
talk with fellow Democrats about, Look, we don't.

Speaker 2 (01:35:50):
Like cutting things.

Speaker 1 (01:35:51):
Well, Jared, you probably like cutting things more than the
average Democrat does, but how are you going to guide
them as a political question?

Speaker 9 (01:35:59):
You're going to see really funny politics for us. You're
gonna see Republicans advocating for more spending and less cuts
and bigger government. I mean, you're you know, yeah, you're
absolutely right, Democrats and responsibility governing. They're gonna have to
agree to this one hundred percent. You will also hear
Republicans making the argument, don't cut this, don't cut this,
and then they don't have to add up the numbers
because they are not governing all of a sudden, they

(01:36:19):
don't want to cut anything, and the budget is out
of balance and they're big spenders.

Speaker 3 (01:36:22):
So you will hear wacky politics out of this.

Speaker 9 (01:36:25):
There's no question you can follow it, you know, during
if there's a special session and beyond. But at the
end of the day, I hope it's bipartisan governing majority.
But perhaps the Republicans feel that they can score political
points by opposing these cuts because you know, they value
health care, they value schools.

Speaker 3 (01:36:39):
So I don't know what to predict.

Speaker 9 (01:36:40):
Partisanship absolutely enters the picture in terms of how legislators behave.
At the end of the day, we just need to
get it done with the majority, whether it's all Democrats,
whether it's bypartists and whatever, it is a majority will
need to figure out how to state balance the budget,
because that is, of course a customers requirement, a good one,
I would add one I support we should balance a budget.

Speaker 1 (01:36:57):
Such such as the nature of politics reminds me a
little bit of how in the Federal Congress Democrats suddenly
care to get the Epstein files released when they never
cared about it before. It's the same kind of same
kind of wacky thing. Governor Jared Polis, Mark Ferandino Marcus,
Executive director of the Colorado State Office of Planning and Budget,
Thank you so much, very informative conversation on a very

(01:37:19):
complex topic. I assume there's going to be a special session.
We'll keep in touch with you guys, either through that
or just after to discuss it all. I'm grateful for
your time. Thank you, thank you, all right, thanks guys.
All right, Mandy walked in just to catch the end
of that way before anything else.

Speaker 2 (01:37:36):
Mandy checked this out.

Speaker 11 (01:37:41):
You know what, Ross, Just when I thought your hair
couldn't get any more ridiculous, there it is my one
hundred shape right in the back of the head.

Speaker 1 (01:37:49):
Yeah, all right, Now you got to say what you're
supposed to say when you get here.

Speaker 2 (01:37:53):
Give us you a what do you got coming up?

Speaker 11 (01:37:55):
Well, I cannot wait to tell Barb Kirkmeyer, which she
comes on the show to talk about the one billion
dollar budget hole, that it's going to be the Republicans
asking for more spending. That governor has stones the size
of candleover. He probably can't even walk right now because
of that garbage clap trap that he just said.

Speaker 2 (01:38:12):
On the show. I don't think he's wrong.

Speaker 1 (01:38:14):
I'm not saying that Republicans are going to come out
and cheer for more spending or generally complain about spending cuts.

Speaker 2 (01:38:21):
But there will be.

Speaker 1 (01:38:22):
Some Republicans coming out saying don't cut that and don't
cut that, and it will be He's not entirely wrong,
even though yes, he is wrong, even though it's almost
all say was Trump's fault first, No, no, And actually
he wasn't entirely negative about the big beautiful bill. He
said there's some upside there for taxpayers, and he wasn't

(01:38:43):
really he didn't really criticize it, which surprised me a
little bit. But it will be interesting to hear what
Barb Kirkmeyer has to say.

Speaker 11 (01:38:48):
For sure, because he didn't talk to her before talking
to the media about it being a billion dollar hole.
He didn't loop any Republicans in so they could start
trying to find new ways to make spending nigger.

Speaker 2 (01:39:01):
I'll have to see Moore coming on today.

Speaker 11 (01:39:02):
If we're going to talk tariffs, we're going to talk
what needs to happen for mortgage rates to actually move
down because people are operating under a misconception.

Speaker 2 (01:39:10):
Yeah, yeah, for sure. You should have heard right now
because of that. Yeah, you should have.

Speaker 1 (01:39:14):
Heard Mandy's eye roll when the governor, when the governor,
we're talking. Everybody, stick around for the fabulous Mandy Connell Show.

Speaker 2 (01:39:20):
I will not be here tomorrow. I will talk to
you next week.